Bakersfield

California on Monday issued its first permits for well stimulation following a third-party review mandated as part of an oil and gas permitting audit process.

The California Department of Conservation’s Oil/Gas Division goes to the heart of the state’s energy production region in Bakersfield Wednesday night to kick off a series of eight public workshops on hydraulic facturing (fracking) as a data-gathering phase prior to writing draft rules to more precisely regulate the oil/gas drilling process.

Tricor Ten Section Hub LLC’s proposed gas storage project near Bakersfield, CA, has received a favorable environmental review from FERC’s Office of Energy Projects (OEP).

Tricor Ten Section Hub LLC said a nonbinding open season for its planned storage project in southern Kern County 10 miles southwest of Bakersfield, CA, which closed Sept. 30, resulted in “significant over subscription for firm service,” as well as additional bids for interruptible and hub services.

Occidental Petroleum said nearly 280 MMcf/d of gas production remains shut in at Elk Hills, the former Naval Petroleum Reserve, north of Bakersfield, CA, in the San Joaquin Valley because of a gas pipeline rupture, explosion and fire last Tuesday.

Occidental Petroleum said about 288 MMcf/d of gas production remains shut in at Elk Hills, the former Naval Petroleum Reserve, north of Bakersfield, CA, in the San Joaquin Valley because of a gas pipeline rupture, explosion and fire on Tuesday.

Bakersfield, CA-based Berry Petroleum Co. said Friday that it has entered into an agreement with a private seller to acquire a 50% working interest in natural gas assets in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado for approximately $150 million in cash.

Adding to its natural gas exploration acreage, Bakersfield, CA-based Berry Petroleum Co. said Friday that it has purchased a 50% working interest in approximately 70,000 gross (60,000 net) undeveloped acres in Colorado’s Phillips and Sedgwick counties from Chandler Energy LLC.

Bakersfield, CA-based Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co., a subsidiary of Tri-Valley Corp., said last week that it is beginning operations to drill the Sunrise-Mayel No. 2 test well nearby Delano, CA, in its continuing plans to pursue what it believes may be the second largest natural gas field ever found on the West Coast. In April 2001, the company labeled its Sunrise Natural Gas Project as possibly “one of the largest onshore finds in more than half a century,” (see NGI, April 16, 2001).